


The Unbearable Ack-Ness Of Being

by CobaltStargazer



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Awkwardness, Canon Divergence(sort of), F/F, Humor, Pre-Canon, Way Awkward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-06
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-04-03 04:53:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4087678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobaltStargazer/pseuds/CobaltStargazer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is why they seldom ask what their co-workers do in their free time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Unbearable Ack-Ness Of Being

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pants2match](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pants2match/gifts).



> I was re-watching some episodes (again, still, some more) and I was wondering what if it had been Alex that Garcia and Reid saw coming out of that hotel in _Hit_.

The day was very warm, and the long coat Spencer was wearing didn't help. But he'd wanted to look like Tom Baker, and Garcia had helped him find the scarf to make the outfit complete. He wrapped it more securely around his neck, trying to get it to lie just right against the brown fabric. 

"Did you have fun?" Penelope asked as they exited the building, and the profiler nodded absently as he poked through his bag of souvenirs. He and the hacker seemed to be the only ones who were into attending conventions, but he'd bought some things inside, little things the others might like. He hoped they would, anyway. As they descended the stairs, the blonde adjusted her hat. She'd been annoyed to see her ex-boyfriend Kevin there with another woman, but then had changed her mind about leaving, determining that they'd stay and have a good time despite the irritation of her ex being present.

"Do you want to go get something to eat?" he asked as they reached the bottom landing, tugging aside his coat sleeve to look at his watch. "I want coffee."

Penelope looked at him dubiously, then up at the cloudless sky, where the sun blazed a hole in the blue expanse. "It's eighty degrees," she told Spencer, and he shrugged one shoulder. "I'm sure they have the iced kind," he replied, toying with one end of the scarf. "Actually, more people drink hot coffee in the summer than you'd think. Something about warm beverages balance out the high temperatures, even when the sun is at its highest point in the sky. There was a study..."

When Reid stopped talking, Penelope assumed that it was because a group of college-aged people trundled past them dressed like the cast of _Farscape_ ;, distracting him with their intricate costumes, but when she looked in his direction, he was directing his attention across the open expanse of concrete in front of the hotel where the con was being held. The fingers of his left hand were still playing with the fringed end of the scarf. The hacker craned her neck so that she could see around him, as she'd fallen a couple of steps behind him as they walked. His legs were longer than hers, which sometimes made it difficult to keep up.

"Isn't that Strauss?" Reflecting on the event later, neither of them would be sure who said it first. 

Erin knew she probably looked like she'd just tumbled out of bed. Or was ready to be tumbled into one. Or both. She'd had a shower, but having to put on the same clothes afterwards meant she still had a tousled look to her. That freshly fucked look. Damn Alex, anyway. 

They'd run into one another by accident after a long silence, and after some prickly conversation the brunette had warily agreed to have lunch with her. The linguist was still teaching, still living in Georgetown.....and still carried her resentment over what had happened after the Amerithrax case. Not that Erin blamed her. That hadn't been the first time she'd let the chance to save her job preclude more personal concerns, but it had been the most painful. To have Alex look so gorgeous after all this time added an extra layer to things. Erin had ordered a club sandwich, the other woman an enormous salad. She'd made a slightly caustic remark about the rabbit food, and after that they'd been off and running, having a subdued fight at the table. She hadn't truly realized how much she'd missed the give and take between them until they'd been in the middle of a muted argument. 

"Well, I can see you're the same as ever." 

Alex had snapped out the words, and Erin had looked back at her directly for the first time since they'd sat down, right into those dark eyes. "Not entirely the same," she'd shot back. "Some things have changed quite a bit." A pause. "And some things not at all." 

Okay, so it had been a mistake, and certainly the fact that it had been such a long time between mistakes of that nature that it gave her an out of sorts. That Alex could still make her twist and squirm was something she didn't feel like admitting to right now, and Erin had forgotten that too, what it was like to come that hard. The brunette's vise grip, one hand on her shoulder and the other tangled into her hair, was something she could still feel. Still. It was a mistake, and one Alex probably wouldn't admit to if they ran into each other again. 

When she saw Dr. Reid and Ms. Garcia, noting the startlement after their ridiculous attire, Erin pulled herself together. Whatever she'd been doing, or who she'd been doing it with, it was none of their concern. Particularly when they were dressed like that. She made eye contact, then started in their direction. 

_"She looks..." Penelope said hesitantly, and next to her Reid nodded._

"Yeah. Yeah, she does." He sounded vaguely disturbed. Disturbed and simultaneously bemused. When Strauss drew nearer, he instinctively straightened his posture and took a half-step away from her. 

"Ma'am." 

Garcia said it, and the other woman nodded slightly. If she brazened it out, she could avoid awkward questions. Alex was still inside. Erin gave the outfits - outfits, get-ups, whatever the hell you wanted to call it - a once-over at close range, and one corner of her mouth twitched. "I see the two of you are enjoying your day off." 

"I guess you are too." 

That was Dr. Reid, and Erin's expression cooled off a fraction. She could never tell if he was being insubordinate or not, and since they weren't in the office she couldn't technically call him on it. Still, she didn't break the eye contact. "Yes, actually," she replied, her tone just a little arch. "I get so few free days, I try to make the most of the ones I do get." 

And that gave Spencer a mental image he just didn't want, and his forehead puckered with a frown as he tried to shake it off. It was hard to imagine Strauss as human enough to cavort in broad daylight, but to be confronted with the evidence of it, even obliquely, was enough to make his over-active brain send up smoke signals. 

Alex held back when she saw Erin talking to someone, then almost turned around and went the other way when she recognized one of them. Spencer Reid had been a guest speaker in a few of her classes, and they had an amicable relationship outside of that. The brunette took a long moment to consider everything. To approach or not to approach? 

_"We thought for a second you were going to go in there," Penelope offered, and that wry humor returned to Strauss' expression as her gaze strayed over what they were wearing again. "Ah....no," she demurred. "Dress-up isn't my idea of a well-spent afternoon."_

Some perverse part of Erin wished they'd come right out and ask, but the elephant in the room was better left unacknowledged. Since she'd broken up with David, she'd shied away from dating, and what happened with Alex had happened so fast that she hadn't time to re-consider it. The feel of her was something she was going to remember for a while. 

"Well, I hope the two of you enjoy....whatever's going on in there," the blonde said, waving behind the profiler and the hacker before taking her leave. She wondered in a vague way if they, not just Reid and Garcia but the others, spent time together outside of work. Probably. But probably not dressed up like _that_. 

It was Penelope who spotted the brunette when she stepped out into the bright sunlight, and three months later, after Emily left and Alex Blake took her place, she had a niggling suspicion that she knew who Strauss had been dallying with. So if she was awkward when she actually met the brunette face to face, there were reasons for it, reasons that she kept to herself. At least until much, much later. And even then.....even then she mostly just felt quietly gratified that she'd been right. 


End file.
